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Friday, 30 December 2011

Good Morning, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday time and enjoyed whatever you did, be it a quiet relaxed time at home or a hectic family affair.

It's been another great month here at penny Black and More and now it's time for some winners all selected by Mr Random Org.,................it would be sooooooo difficult if I had to choose the winners as there were so many fabulous entries........................but the DT do selected the entries who feature in our monthly 'In the Spotlight' feature, so keep an eye out in January to see who made it this month.

First up is the winner of the Restickable Tabs kindly donated by Scotch Tapes:

Sunday, 18 December 2011

A very Good Morning to you all, I am thrilled to be here to introduce our very first 'In the Spotlight' featre'.

With so many entries last month and with such high standards of work, choosing our favourites was really difficult. But we believe the system we have implemented where each of the DT who themselves have their own unique crafting style put forward their two favourites as the initial part of our voting process, all entrants are offered an equal and fair opportunity of being selected.

So I am pleased to introduce you to the final two, Amelia and Sharon together with a few comments from the DT as to why they selected their entries, plus a little bio about each along with their winning entry. I do hope you will take time to pop along and visit them both and see more of their fabulous work.

"Hello, I am Amelia Breytenbach. I am delighted to feature in the spotlight post on The Penny Black and More Challenge blog – it is such a honour. I am married for 27 years to my loving and supportive husband and we live in Pretoria, South Africa with our two dogs. I am a librarian at a large residential university for the past 32 years but when I am at home I keep myself busy with card making – I love creating, and stamping is my passion. I have been stamping for 8 years now but started my own blog and entered challenges since February 2010. Since blogging I met so many new and wonderful friends from around the world sharing my passion. I was on an amazing design team and along with talented card makers I did some guest designing for a few inspirational challenge blogs. I have a variety of stamps from several companies, local and abroad but am totally addicted to Penny Black stamps. I am also passionate about creating with die cuts and vintage scraps. My favourite colouring technique is watercolour pencils and I love to add detail to my cards, especially flowers and lace. My style has developed over time seeing all the beautiful cards from so many talented card makers and I would describe my style as a mixture of shabby, vintage and cute elements. My biggest dream is to turn my love for crafting into my job! Thank you Brenda and the Penny Black and More design team for this opportunity to share my passion".

"I’ve always been a crafter and dabbled in many crafting hobbies making homemade gifts and the like since I was very young. But I first got involved in stamping about nine years ago when I was invited to a card-making party. A few years later, a friend invited me into a stamp “club” that met monthly and my stamp crafting really took off from there. Now I’m totally obsessed with stamping – it really is the perfect creative outlet for me. My favorite creative styles are vintage cards with lace and pearls and lots of layers. But I dabble with the whimsical and playful images in cards with bright, fun colors and patterns too."

Our congratulations to you both, please grab our special 'In the Spotlight' logo and wear with pride on your own blog.

There is still time to join in our December 'Happy Birthday' challenge when you might be in our next 'In the Spotlight' feature which will be published on 18th January and of course be in with a chance of winning one of the great prizes on offer again this month.

We also have one other prize on offer that will go to one of our new followers this month, all you need do to be in with a chance of winning is sign up, simple as that.

Saturday, 17 December 2011

Good Morning everyone, I hope you are all OK and your Christmas preparations going to plan........not long now.................. after weeks of looking forward to it, it's almost upon us and if you are anything like me, the panic sets in because all of those things you planned to do weeks ago still need sorting.

We have a really fabulous month in November and it was absolutely wonderful to see so many of you joining in the fun and we so hope you will find time to join us again this month, it's a really easy theme..................

Happy Birthday

You can use any make of stamp for your entry, but no digi images are allowed.

And don't forget to keep an eye out for ourspecial post on 20th December announcing our first two 'In the Spotlight' entries for November...........who will they be, it could even be you !!

Lots of lovely prizes on offer again and we are delighted to welcome a new sponsor this month .....................Scotch Tapes who are giving three sets of their new Restickable Tabs to one lucky winner which retail at £3.32 per pack.

These double sided tabs are easy to use, will stick to any surface, remove cleanly and because they are clear you won't see them when they are used for such things as hanging Christmas decorations. Best of all, when you are finished with them you can simply wash them in soapy water and they are as good as new.

And some more great prizes from Penny Black.................... don't forget to join the club so you are always in the know about new products.

And welcome again to Sir Stampalot, our regular sponsors for the special prize open to all entries using a Penny Black image. Their Peterborough shop and on line store really is a one stop craft haven and Freebie Friday is something not to be missed, their newsletter Smudges will give you full details of the latest giveaway every Thursday evening. And they have a huge selection of sale items here which is regularly updated and always a bargain to be had.

Here's the prize for that category..................

And some pretty ribbons, buttons and pins....................

And how about some inspiration and we have loads for you this month and first up is our December Guest Designer Sue who has created these stunning pieces of artwork for us

And Jill who until this week was one of my team members at Allsorts, but I am sorry to say she has just stepped down due to work and family commitments, but still made this lovely card for us..............

Monday, 5 December 2011

Typical me, I totally forgot yesterday to post the winner of the candy for our new followers in November, so apols for that, but at least it gives me the opportunity to give a huge welcome to all the new faces and offer another little candy for December's new followers......................please grab the cute stamp above and pop on your sidebar to help us let everyone know about our great challenge.

A name will be selected from all those peeps who join up between now and the close of this months challenge on 27th December.